Electric contact rail and shoe.



No. 867,021. PATENTED SEPT. 24, 1907.

G. DRAWERT.

- ELEUTRIG CONTACT RAIL AND SHOE.

arrmoynon FILED my 14, 1906.

, fslii o rmron.

GEORGE DltAWERT, or CHICAGO; ILLINOIS.

ELECTRIC oonrao'r RAIL AND siren.

Application filed May 14,1906. Serial No. 3l6,70.

To all whom it may concern: l

Be it known that I, GEORGE DRAWERT, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certainnew and useful Improvements in Electric Contact Railsand Shoes, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in contact rails and cooperatingshoes such as are at present employed in third-rail electric railwaysystems, but it is not necessarily limitedto such use. It is the aim-ofmy invention to provide a contact rail which will not be detrimentallyaffected by rain, sleet, ice or the like and from which there will bebut slight if any leakage; to secure a firm and efficient contactbetween the rail and co'acting traveling shoe at all times and in allkinds of-weather; -to eliminate springs in connection with the travelingcontact; to cause the drag of the shoe on the rail to attain a betterelectrical connection between the two parts; and to do away with thearcing or flashing which frequently occurs in connection with the thirdrails and shoes now employed.

In my novel form of rail and moving contact the weight of the parts andthe drag is depended upon to secure the desired electrical andconducting connection thereby doing away with the customary springs forforcing the shoe on to the rail. In the accompanying drawings wherein Ihave illustrated .the preferred embodiment of my invention; Figure 1 isa perspective view of a section of the contact rail, 2. fragment of. oneof the brackets for supporting the same, and the contactshoe which iscarried by the electric car; and Fig. 2 is a section of the conductingrail adjacent to one of the supporting brackets.

The conducting or third rail 10 has along its lowersurface alongitudinal undercut groove 11 providing the two checks or ledges 12upon which the contact shoe, described hereinafter, is adapted to restand make an efficient electrical connection. I preferably surround thiscontact rail or conductor on its exterior surfacewith a coating or layerof any suitable kind of insulating material 13. To support these rails Iuse a number of brackets or arms 14 which are formed so as to extendabout half way around the contact rail, as shown at Fig. 2, and aroundsubstantially the remainder of the rail with its coating of insulationextends a clamp 15, bolts 16 fastening the clamps 15 to the supports 14by passing through apertures in the upstanding flanges l7 'and 18. Onthe lower side of the contact rail the supports 14 and clamps 15 do notquite reach to the margins of the undercut slot 11 so that there is nodanger of grounding the circuit through the supports as the contact shoetravels along.

On a beam 19 attached to the car and preferably extended outwardlytherefrom I mount a standard 20 Specification of Letters Patent. I

' Patentedsept. 24, 1907.

which is hinged to a block 21, fastened to the beam 19 by lag screws orbolts 22, by means of a hinge pin 23 i which passes through aperturedlugs on the standard and block, as will be readily understood. Thishinge pin is headed at one end and is prevented from becoming displacedby a cotter pin 24 passing therethrough near its other end. i

In order to prevent the standard 20 from turning on the'hinge undernormal circumstances it is screwed down to the beam 20 by means of bolts25 pivoted to beam 19 at 25 and equipped at the'ir upper ends withremovable nuts 25 each equipped with a handle 25 which may be insulatedwith tape if desired. These bolts engage slots 26 in the base of thestandard as will be apparent from an inspection of the drawing.Projecting upwardly from the main body of standard 20 are two pairs ofspaced ears 26, one pair at each end of the" standard ends andextendingtransversely at 31. to the lower portion of the contact shoeand has a slot 32 at its lower end engaging one ofthe pins 27, and itwill be obvious that by this construction the shoe has a loose or pinand slot connection with the standard. The contacting parts or head ofthe shoe 29 is tapered .at. each end at 33 and is of such a size incross-section as to substantially fill the undercut groove 11 of thecontacting rail.. The shoes under surface is fiat and is adapted to restupon, ride along, and make contact with the upper surfaces of ledges 12.Within the body of shoe 29 and below its contacting and slot engagingportion is a block 34 [shown in dotted lines] of copper, brass or othergood conducting material, the block being held in place by bolts 35 in amanner which will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.Within the lower portion of standard 201 also insert a similarconducting block [not shown] and retain the same in place by screws 36.Obviously a good and eflicient electrical 'connection is not securedbetween the shoe 29 and the standard 20 because of the loose connectionof links 30 with'the latter and in order to overcome this defect andsecure a suitable conducting connection I employ a copper wire 37 whichis conductively fastened to and which connects the block 34 and thesimilar block which is retained in position by the screws 36. v

The operation of this device is as follo MS! -When the shoe is withinthe undercut groove 11 it rests upon the ledges 12 because of its ownweight and that of the links 30, and as the car travels along it dragsthe shoe into still firmer contact with the ledges thereby securing agood electrical conducting connection. Ineescape the same.

qualities inthe height of the rail, if any are present, are readilyovercome and form no inconvenience since the shoe has a free up and downmovement owing to its loose connection with the standard. Incase it isdesired to remove the shoe from the slot and turn the same away from thecontacting rail this may be readily accomplished by removing the shoefrom the rail at any of the places provided "for that purpose along thecontact rail [not shown], loosening nuts 25 and swinging bolts 2 5out ofslots 26 and turning the standard with the attached shoe on hinge pin 23so as to move it to a position sufliciently distant from the contactrail to t In the accompanying drawings and in the descrip-' tion abovecertaindetails of construction have been set forth; but it is'obviousthat my invention is not limited to these details since many minormechanical changes may be made in the structure without departing fromthe substance of my invention as'defined'by the following claims.

on a car below said rail, l1 contact shoe adapted to travel in saidundercut groove and contact with the ledges of said rail providedby saidgroove, links connecting said shoe and standard, said links beingpivoted to said shoe and having a pin and slot connection with saidstandard, means to maintain said standard in an upright position, and awire connecting said shoe and standard, substantially as described.

2. In a device of the character described, the combination of anelectric contact shoe, astandard pivoted or hinged to a car, one or morelinks connecting said stand art] and shoe, said link or links beingpivoted to said shoe and having a pin and slot connection with saidstandard, means to maintain said standard in upright position, and aconducting wire electrically connectingsaid standard and shoe,substantially asdescribed.

GEORGE DRAWERT. Witnesses:

-Fnnonmcx C. Goonwin,

Wnurns M. FULLER.

